GitHub Copilot Launches Public Preview for Apple's Xcode

GitHub releases public preview of Copilot for Apple's Xcode

GitHub this week announced an important update coming for developers working on a Mac. That's because the first preview of GitHub Copilot for Apple's Xcode is now available, so developers can try out the new AI-based feature to improve their workflow. For those unfamiliar, GitHub Copilot is an AI coding assistant that helps developers write code faster with suggestions and requests for specific commands. Developers can ask Copilot for help using the command line and even generate a description of changes in a pull request. GitHub Copilot was already available for many IDEs, including Android Studio and Visual Studio Code. Now the feature will also be integrated into Xcode, the software used to develop apps for Apple platforms such as macOS and iOS. "Now, Apple developers can enjoy the same intelligent coding assistance, seamlessly integrated into their favorite IDE. With this public beta, Xcode users can boost productivity, speed up development, and enhance their overall coding experience using Copilot," said GitHub in a blog post. With GitHub Copilot in Xcode, developers can use code completion and multiline suggestions, as well as content filtering. The feature works in multiple programming languages, including Swift and Objective-C. To try out the public preview of GitHub Copilot for Xcode, developers must have a valid Copilot license. Then you need to follow a step-by-step guide available on the GitHub website. It's worth noting that Xcode 16 also includes AI-based features for predictive code in Swift using language models developed by Apple. You can download the latest version of Xcode from the Apple Developer website.

GitHub Brings Copilot to Xcode

Popular AI coding tool Copilot is now available for Xcode as part of a public preview, GitHub announced today. Apple developers can use Copilot for coding assistance directly in Xcode, which GitHub says will help developers boost productivity, speed up development, and enhance their overall coding experience. GitHub Copilot for Xcode offers multiple useful features. Xcode users who have a Copilot license can use Copilot for Xcode by installing the Copilot extension. As of right now, the feature is available in a preview capacity and GitHub is soliciting feedback from developers. Copilot is priced starting at $10 per month or $100 per year.

GitHub Copilot for Xcode now in public preview | AppleInsider

Bring intelligent coding assistance to Apple's Xcode with the GitHub Copilot extension, now available in a public preview for those with a Copilot license. Don't confuse GitHub Copilot with Microsoft's AI -- it is an AI-powered developer tool for use in an IDE. GitHub Copilot can provide code suggestions and help a developer via a chat tool that has access to GitHub's repositories. According to an announcement from GitHub, Copilot is coming to Xcode as an extension. Copilot license holders can access the public preview and get it installed by following the getting started guide. There are a few features available in the public preview. Apple already includes an AI-powered tool called Swift Assist in Xcode. It offers predictive code completion for coding in Swift and using Apple SDKs, so it is a more specific tool than GitHub Copilot. The ability to add GitHub Copilot to Xcode will be a boon for developers looking to get AI assistance on problems outside of Swift. Both Apple's and GitHub's tools will continue to improve and help developers keep focused on high-level problems.

GitHub's Copilot comes to Apple's Xcode

At its Universe conference, GitHub today announced a number of major new products, including the Spark project for writing applications entirely with AI, as well as multi-model support for its Copilot service. But Copilot itself is also getting quite a few updates. With this release, Microsoft-owned GitHub is bringing Copilot to Apple's Xcode environment for the first time. Now in public preview, this will allow developers who build apps in Apple's IDE with the assistance of Copilot. For now, the focus here is on code completion, but Copilot Chat and its other features will likely make their way into Xcode over time. Copilot already supports Apple's preferred languages Swift and Objective-C, so there's no surprise there. Copilot, like on other platforms, will offer multi-line suggestions when it can and users will be able to block suggestions that match public code. "This is a major milestone in our ongoing mission to make Copilot an essential tool for developers across a wide variety of platforms," GitHub writes in today's announcement. "Now, Apple developers can enjoy the same intelligent coding assistance, seamlessly integrated into their favorite IDE." All paying Copilot users on individual, business and enterprise plans will have access to this public beta now. All they have to do to get started is install the Copilot extension for Xcode. It's worth noting that while Copilot itself never natively supported Xcode, we've seen a few projects like the CopilotForXcode extension that took matters into their own hand and used GitHub's APIs to bring Copilot code completion to Xcode. Among the new capabilities are Copilot Chat in VS Code making edits to multiple files at the same time to solve more complex issues, a new code review feature that offers developers feedback on their code, and the ability to give Copilot Chat custom instructions about a user's (or organization's) preferred tools, organizational knowledge, and more. Copilot Extensions, which integrate developer tools and services from companies like Atlassian, Docker, Sentry and Stack Overflow into Copilot, remain in preview but will become generally available in early 2025. At that time, users will also be able to build their own private extensions that can work with their organization's DIY tools.

GitHub

Popular AI coding tool Copilot is now available for Xcode as part of a public preview, GitHub announced today. Apple developers can use Copilot for coding assistance directly in Xcode, which GitHub says will help developers boost productivity, speed up development, and enhance their overall coding experience. GitHub Copilot for Xcode offers multiple useful features. Code completions...

GitHub unveils new AI capabilities, bringing Copilot to Apple's Xcode and beyond

GitHub helped to kick off the modern era of using AI to build applications with its Copilot technology and now it's looking to open AI up even more. At the GitHub Universe conference today, the company rolled out an expansion of its AI-powered development tools. To date, GitHub Copilot has relied on OpenAI's large language models (LLMs), including OpenAI Cortex in the beginning, to power its technology. Now GitHub is going multi-model. GitHub Copilot now supports multiple AI models, allowing developers to choose between Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Google's Gemini 1.5 Pro and OpenAI's GPT4o variants. The GitHub Models service which was first announced in August is also growing, providing users with more ways and options to try out LLMs in a model playground. There is now even more integration with Microsoft's VS Code integrated development environment (IDE), that enables multi-file editing. Agentic AI is also getting a boost with a series of updates to the GitHub Copilot Workspace service. Going a step further, the new GitHub Spark technology is an attempt to make it even easier to build basic applications quickly in an effort to enable more people to develop applications. Rounding out the GitHub Universe update is an expansion of Copilot to support the Apple Xcode IDE and the availability of a StackOverflow extension "We're taking the Copilot platform from single-threaded to multi-threaded," Mario Rodriguez, Chief Product Officer at GitHub told VentureBeat. Expanding the available AI models for use with GitHub Copilot provides numerous benefits to enterprises and their developers. Rodriguez noted that now users will have the ability to choose from different AI models to accomplish their coding tasks, rather than being limited to a single model. He said that just like there is more than one programming language, there are many LLMs to choose from and each has its own benefits. At launch, developers will still have to choose if they want to use a different model than OpenAI. Rodriguez said that in the future, Copilot may be able to automatically select the most appropriate model for a given task, based on factors like speed and performance, to provide the best results. GitHub is introducing significant improvements to its VS Code integration, including multi-file editing capabilities. The new feature allows developers to instruct Copilot to make changes across multiple files simultaneously, rather than editing each file individually. A new code review system, currently in private preview and moving to public preview, has received very positive feedback according to GitHub. The system allows teams to configure specific rules and requirements, with Copilot automatically reviewing pull requests based on team-level configurations. "Code review is the essence of iteration velocity," Rodriguez noted. "If you're a developer, and you finish some code, and you have it in code review, and you're waiting and waiting and waiting for feedback... that's code sitting there that is not in production. The faster you can get feedback, the better it is." GitHub is also expanding the reach of Copilot with a series of new options. While GitHub Copilot has always been integrated with Microsoft's VS code IDE, it wasn't available for users of Apple's Xcode. That's no longer the case. "We want Copilot to be everywhere," Rodriguez said. "So we already have it in JetBrains, in the terminal and now it's in Xcode." Beyond just being available in other developer tools, GitHub wants to be an integrated part of the larger development ecosystem. A core part of that ecosystem in recent years is the StackOverflow community, where developers ask questions and share tips on development practices. At GitHub Universe, Stack Overflow announced the availability of its GitHub Copilot Extension. The new extension allows developers to get insight from Stack Overflow directly within GitHub Copilot. Prashanth Chandrasekar, CEO of Stack Overflow, told VentureBeat that AI can help developers work faster, eliminating cycles and freeing up headspace for higher-level work. "However, one key caveat to keep in mind: AI can generate code, but it can't provide the context, history or background on whether that code will fit the need and work as the question asked," Chandrasekar said. "Our hope is that this extension will be used in a way to help support those looking for highly technical, trusted knowledge with the sources cited to back up what the user is looking for." GitHub's Workspace feature, which has already attracted more than 100,000 developers in preview, is receiving significant updates. The platform now offers enhanced integration with GitHub.com, including a new pull request experience that allows developers to quickly address code suggestions and resolve issues through an AI-native interface. Rodriguez explained that the system acts as an orchestration engine, similar to how Kubernetes orchestrates infrastructure for the cloud, but for AI-powered development tools. This allows developers to move seamlessly from idea to implementation using natural language interactions. Perhaps the most ambitious announcement is Spark, a new tool aimed at making software development accessible to non-professionals. The platform allows users to quickly create personal applications without extensive coding knowledge. Unlike traditional low-code or no-code platforms, Spark focuses on enabling personal software creation for joy and creativity. Spark is using the power of Copilot to create the applications. Rodriguez demonstrated this by sharing how he created a math game for his daughter in just five minutes, emphasizing the platform's accessibility and immediate utility. "The goal is 1 billion developers," Rodriguez explained. "By 2030 we might have 10 billion people in the world, wouldn't it be amazing if we could actually unlock the power of creating software for 1 billion of them?"